The new widened lanes on Princes Bridge (removing one car lane) have met with great approval from cyclists. arious police and MCC reports have indicated that the impacts upon motor vehicle congestion are minimal (well not if you believe the Feral Hun's bleatings, but that's Murdoch's rag for you)

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

This just hit the Fairfax website. I'd say well played to the majority of the council on this one. Usual peanuts posting in the comments

Radio broadcasters have been accused of running a pro-car campaign, fuelling community angst over Melbourne City Council's new separated bike lanes. Complaints over congestion and increased travel times for motorists have bubbled up since the beginning of the three-month bike lane trial on Princes Bridge. During Tuesday's Future Melbourne Committee meeting councillors singled out powerful media interests for driving “irrational” opposition to the project.Cr Stephen Mayne claimed the city's talkback radio stations were among those behind a “ridiculous campaign” against the bike lanes.“The Princes Bridge issue has been running very loudly on 3AW and 774 and obviously those presenters have a bias in favour of cars because that's a very large constituency for them,” Cr Mayne said.“And it's also been subjected to, in my view, outrageous, disgraceful and irrational beat-ups by the Herald Sun . . . which culminated in a ridiculous editorial specifically criticising the Princes Bridge bike changes. We shouldn't be afraid of taking them on and slapping them down,” Cr Mayne said.The 3AW morning host Neil Mitchell has rubbished suggestions that his view – that council should reconsider the bike lane design – was based on any pro-motorist bias.“Stephen can see a conspiracy in the sun coming up in the morning,” he said “We've taken a lot of calls from people that are concerned . . . we've also taken a lot of calls from cyclists that have defended it.”The debate was sparked on Tuesday night by an unsuccessful motion by Richard Foster to temporarily halt work on the new St Kilda Road bike lanes in order to address the concerns. While there was consensus the redesign of St Kilda Road and Princes Bridge had been subject to extensive community consultation, Cr Foster argued it sometimes took a “splash” in the mainstream media to get the public's attention. He said the debate clearly hadn't reached all sectors of the community – until now.“The shock jocks do get hold of things and the Herald Sun does run things and it does create unrealistic and irrational views on otherwise good projects,” Cr Foster said. “If you're serious about bike paths you need the broader community's support for them.”The motion attracted a line-up of mainly pro-cycling speakers to the Town Hall, including representatives from the Amy Gillett Foundation and Melbourne Bicycle User Group. The only councillor to lend her support to Cr Foster's motion was Jackie Watts, who argued “a pause doesn't hurt to let some good ideas come forward”.But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and other councillors took exception to this reasoning, arguing that even a small delay to the bike lanes could “hurt” if a cyclist were hit and killed by a car in the meantime.“To say let's stop work on what makes people safer I think is a very dangerous notice of motion and not one that I'm willing to support,” Cr Doyle said. “The data and modelling shows the capacity [on St Kilda Road] is well in excess of volumes and thus there won't be any affect on congestion of vehicles. “For me data is the answer and the data doesn't support this motion.”

Closing off some vehicle lanes in StKilda Rd will hardly make a difference given the bottlenecks cars face when they leave StKilda Rd. There's such a lot of crap peddled when it comes to the impact of putting in bike lanes.

Melbourne city council recently did something astonishing – at least to those unfamiliar with cities such as Copenhagen or Amsterdam. It removed a vehicle lane as part of a trial to make more room for cyclists on Princes Bridge.

It's the latest sign that Melbourne is starting to live up to the lord mayor's pledge of being "a true cycling city". A four-year plan aims to increase the number of cyclists by 50%, while in the past two years $8m has been invested in cycle paths and the launch of a bike hire scheme (which has admittedly come with a few helmet-related issues).

While the Victorian government still appears to think that transport strategy should be about moving cars around, rather than people, Melbourne has undergone a cycling surge.

Melbourne city council recently did something astonishing – at least to those unfamiliar with cities such as Copenhagen or Amsterdam. It removed a vehicle lane as part of a trial to make more room for cyclists on Princes Bridge.

It's the latest sign that Melbourne is starting to live up to the lord mayor's pledge of being "a true cycling city". A four-year plan aims to increase the number of cyclists by 50%, while in the past two years $8m has been invested in cycle paths and the launch of a bike hire scheme (which has admittedly come with a few helmet-related issues).

While the Victorian government still appears to think that transport strategy should be about moving cars around, rather than people, Melbourne has undergone a cycling surge.

There's actually a previous instance of something similar. A few years ago (can't recall the date), Port Philip City Council removed a long section of kerbside parking along Jacka Blvd in St Kilda for the specific purpose of putting in a cycling lane. I was gobsmacked when they did it, because the Bay side councils aren't well known for their pro-cycling stances.